Iron Man suit powered by Arduino

Julius Sanchez is a designer, developer, maker, an inventor, entrepreneur, and just an amazingly talented person. We want to share one of his coolest projects - The Iron Man, inspired by Marvel’s Iron Man character.

This project is a wearable voice command MP3 player powered by the Arduino Mega 2650. The player comes complete with a helmet with a raising and lowering face shield. A built in flash light, LEDs for the display and also a scanner. While the scanner has not yet been implemented, the scalability of the Arduino board will provide a user with the backbone for when that upgrade happens. This wearable MP3 player is also capable of providing ambiance lighting, the arc reactor doubles as a strobe light. All the functionality ranging from powering on the suit, turning on and off on board lights, raising and lowering the face shield and running diagnostics are all voice command which is made possible by Audeme MOVI. The Arduino Mega is the main controller, connecting the servos, trigger drivers, LEDS, MP3 player, batteries, digital on off push button switch and wiring them through the MOVI to send the ON/OFF signals to operates the devices. Each component must be engineered to fit into tight spaces. Each piece is tested while laid out and once the concept is sound, the trick is getting the components to work together and within the confinement of the suit.

The entire suit is made out of Worbla or thermoplastic, and it took 8 months to complete. Julius made a cast of the each part of the suit using plaster, clay, and bondo. Once those are created, the thermoplastic is heated up to around 130 – 140 degrees Fahrenheit and molded by hand on top of the cast. The thermoplastic is treated with canvas gesso, a layer of plaster and clay is added for the details. Once the suit was completed, the author used brackets, hinges, servos, motor, LEDs and microcontrollers to complete the suit to give it practical functionality.

“This wearable device requires no other accessory unless you’re thinking about taking your date to dinner, I suggest wearing a tie and since this is a unisex device, ladies can try different dresses worn over the ensemble for those special outings!” - says Julius. He also jokes: “The original idea behind this project was to be able to raise the Iron Man face shield while holding my beers in both hands. “